Unsettling note led to discovery of mother, daughter dead at Vegas hotel

Newly released dispatch records show authorities were alerted to a possible suicide attempt after a note was found on the door of a Las Vegas hotel room — shortly before an 11-year-old girl and her mother were found shot to death inside.

Addilyn “Addi” Smith, 11, and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, were found dead inside a room at the Rio Hotel & Casino on Feb. 15 after hotel personnel conducted a welfare check, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Police were first called to the hotel around 10:45 a.m. local time after the pair failed to show up at a cheerleading competition. Addi’s coach requested a welfare check when she did not arrive, according to 911 call records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Officers knocked on the door and called into the room for 15 to 20 minutes but received no response. With no immediate signs of danger, police cleared the call.

Over the next several hours, hotel personnel received additional requests for a welfare check. At approximately 2:26 p.m., fire officials advised dispatchers that a note had been found on a door and that there may have been a possible suicide attempt, the Review-Journal reported. Hotel staff entered the room one minute later. 

By 2:35 p.m., ambulance officials told dispatchers they had located an adult woman and a child deceased, according to the outlet. 

“The mother shot her daughter and then shot herself,” LVMPD homicide Lt. Robert Price said at a previous news conference. He confirmed a note was left behind but declined to discuss its contents. Authorities have not publicly identified a motive, and the investigation remains ongoing.

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The Clark County coroner ruled McGeehan’s cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head and listed the manner of death as suicide. Addi’s cause and manner of death remain pending.

Although police have not formally identified the victims, court documents and family members have identified them as McGeehan and Addi.

Court filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show McGeehan and Addi’s father, Brad Smith, were locked in a contentious custody battle for nearly a decade following their 2015 divorce. Judges imposed detailed exchange protocols governing how and where the parents could hand off their daughter. Records show McGeehan temporarily lost custody of Addi in 2017 but was granted joint custody in 2020.

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McGeehan had also recently been receiving “mean” text messages from other parents on her daughter’s Utah Xtreme Cheer team, the New York Post reported.

Connie McGeehan, Tawnia’s mother, told the outlet her daughter had been having issues with “one or two” other mothers on the team and that tensions escalated about a month before the tragedy.

“In the last comp they had, another girl got dropped and some of the moms were saying it was because of Addi,” Connie McGeehan told The Post. “They were texting [Tawnia] mean stuff and blaming Addi.”

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The Post cited a source close to the team who said there had been a recent “confrontation” between McGeehan and another mother in a waiting room. Utah Xtreme Cheer owner Kory Uyetake acknowledged to the outlet that there had been “comments back and forth” between McGeehan and some other parents but said everything appeared normal when the team traveled to Las Vegas.

One of the other cheer moms who spoke with Fox News Digital confirmed tensions among some parents but said the focus now is on the children grieving. She said her daughter has struggled with the loss but plans to launch a mental health awareness and suicide prevention program at her school next year in honor of her friend.

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Valerie Krystine Muniz, who identified herself on social media as Addi’s aunt and the sister of her father, urged the public to stop speculating as the family grieves.

“We already see so much speculation going around so please help in just spreading love and prayers while my brother tries to pick up the pieces of what has happened,” Muniz wrote.

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“I have never known a man to love and fight for his daughter like he has done all of Addi’s life,” she added. “The system failed him and her.”

Muniz did not elaborate.

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James Watts, who represented McGeehan, confirmed to PEOPLE that he is aware of the note but has not seen it.

“I do not know what the content is,” Watts told the outlet. “It is the family’s hope at some point, when it’s no longer required by law enforcement, that it will be returned to [McGeehan’s] mother, [who] would like to know what was being said at the time.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Watts for additional information.

Authorities have not released further details about a possible motive. When contacted, Metro Police said they do not have any new updates.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to [email protected].

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